Tom Carper: “I want to start where the Senator from North Dakota concluded his remarks, to express the gratitude of Delaware for the…”

“I want to start where the Senator from North Dakota concluded his remarks, to express the gratitude of Delaware for the fine work the appropriations subcommittee has done, the leadership of Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens, their staffs, the other members of the committee. One of the letters I sent to Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens several weeks ago was a letter calling on them to not rescind, through legislative language in the appropriations bill, the 2004 Defense authorization language which said we were not going to allow the Air Force to retire any additional C-5 aircraft until the first three had been fully modernized, flight tested, and then evaluated. A number of us signed that letter and a number of us in the same letter also called for the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense to endorse the President's budget proposal for fiscal 2008 with respect to C-5 modernization. The subcommittee has done that. I thank them in a very public way for their attention to our request. Today we are considering an important bill, one that provides funding for our troops, many in harm's way around the world, others in different phases of training or in some cases retraining or rest after they have been deployed abroad.”